


A Fixed Point

by happilyinsane13



Series: "I defy you stars" [2]
Category: Captain America (2011), Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Steve Feels, Time Travel, Timey-Wimey, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-08
Updated: 2012-09-08
Packaged: 2017-11-13 19:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happilyinsane13/pseuds/happilyinsane13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve in not only in love with a woman who time travels, but a married slightly older woman that time travels. Why does he do this to himself? And it all happened while battling Daleks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fixed Point

It was another day for The Avengers, fighting aliens from outer space that always seemed to lead the first attack against their home of New York City. Seriously, what was it with aliens targeting New York first? What about Chicago, San Diego, or some random city like Dallas? Steve Rogers was getting rather tired of destroying and then re-building his hometown several times in the same year.

It was a species they had not seen before and currently their expert on creatures beyond this realm was held up in Asgard. Whatever it was "It had better be damn important or I'm taking his precious hammer away and using it for scrap metal" said Tony Stark as he blasted one of the metal cans with the deadly eyestalks. To make matters worse, all they seemed to say was "Exterminate!" and honestly, it was starting to piss Steve off.

"I can't seem to find a weakness!" he yelled as Tony continued to blow them up with his hands. Steve, not for the first time, felt like he got cheated when it came to the suit. Steve hurled his shield into the metal top that was the creature's head, letting it spark and explode. As Steve ran to retrieve the shield he took his eyes away from the battle for a second and then,

"Captain! Watch out!" he heard Natasha's voice yell and Steve whirled around, the tin-can alien approaching. Steve tried to pull his shield out of the dead one but it wouldn't budge for the fourth of a second he needed…

Suddenly he heard the bang and whiz of a bullet and the creature's eyestalk exploded. It stopped in its tracks at once. Steve pulled his shield free and whirled around to face his savior or his enemy. He was greeted by a mass of blonde, curly hair and a cheeky grin.

"Aim for the eyestalk American Boy, it will kill them when they're not expecting it."

As she was saying this, another creature had crept up behind her and before Steve could react she bent her right arm under her left elbow and shot the thing without even looking. Bulls eye.

Before Steve could even open his mouth a man in a tweed jacket, bow tie, and practically twirling on his toes appeared beside her. "River! Should've known you were off saving the American man with the most muscle here!"

"Jealous sweetie?"

"You wish,"

"I know,"

"I'll never admit it,"

"You just did,"

"Oi! You two!"

A red-headed woman with a fiery Scottish accent popped her head from down an adjacent alley, a man with a straight nose and brown hair by her side.

"Stop flirting and come on! Disable the core of the ship and re-wire it to beam all the Daleks up and send them away, remember?"

"Such a spoil sport, mummy," The woman, Steve now assumed was River, called back. "I was having a grand time rescuing this specimen of a man."

She eyed him like a cat did dinner and Steve was very glad his mask covered his face because he was sure the heat in his cheeks would have showed otherwise.

"You are a married woman," the man with the bow tie grumped as they spun on their feet to run to the couple down the alley.

"Oh Doctor I know that, doesn't mean I can't admire though!" she laughed.

That day the image of them running was burned into Steve's mind as he fought off the things they had called 'Daleks' for another twenty minutes before they all disappeared in a beam of white light, leaving a lot of rubble and questions behind.

"I am gravely sorry, my Midgardian friends, that I could not assist you with the extermination of the Daleks," Thor said after the team had assembled back in Stark tower.

"And exactly what were you doing while these things were traipsing around exterminating people?" Tony drawled, twitching as Pepper dabbed rubbing alcohol onto the various scrapes on his face.

"I had to assist in my brother's arranged wedding to a Lady of Appalapachia, one of the last of her people," Thor explained.

Clint raised an eyebrow from his perch on top of the refrigerator behind the bar.

"And exactly how was your assistance needed?" he asked, his bow hand tapping against the stainless steel.

Thor cocked his head to one side as if unsure why he needed to explain.

"To make sure he did not escape of course,"

The room seemed to chorus in a simultaneous "Oh".

"So what are these Daleks?" Natasha asked. "Steve said the people he saw knew what they were, and thinks they stopped them."

"They must have," Steve assured her. "They were talking about a ship and beaming all of them up and twenty minutes later that's what happened."

"I fervently hope they destroyed the foul creatures afterwards," Thor frowned and his fists clenched. "Daleks are one of the cruelest species in the universe. Hate and death are their concepts of beauty. They are known for wiping out entire planets, such as that of the Time Lords. You must attack the eyestalk or have enough fire power to completely obliterate them."

"That would have been helpful hours ago," Tony drawled. "Thanks Thor, you're a real help!"

Thor decided to ignore Tony's comment (wisely so) and turned to Steve.

"Who were these Bringers of Fate you met?"

Steve shrugged.

"A woman named River and a man in a bow tie."

Steve did not appreciate being kidnapped by big metal men who were trying to either kill him or convert him into them, thank you very much. He had merely gone out to the White House to research the sudden disappearances of several important politicians when, before he knew it, he had been taken by surprise in the dark basement (Who knew the White House had one?).

Luckily easily overpowered them at first and was able to fight them off but he dropped his shield in the struggle. His teammates were in other, less creepy, parts of the White House. As he fought them off, trying desperately not to inch closer to the contraption he suspected killed the politicians, a bright red laser shot past his head and cracked one of his opponents heads.

"Oh, American Boy, fancy seeing you again."

Steve kicked another one away from him and whirled around to see River fighting her way through the deadly crowd and to a set of controls on the other side of the room.

"Madam, it's dangerous here," Steve choked out as he punched a hole through the chest of one of the metal men. His hand came away bloody.

"What the hell?"

"Cybermen, big boy," River called as she kept shooting through her enemies. "Unfortunately many have been converted from humans. Don't feel bad, they were already dead. Oh, and by the way,"

Her blonde curls bounced off her shoulders as she spun out a second gun from her holster and shot four Cybermen in a matter of two seconds.

"I can take care of myself."

"Yes madam."

"What a polite American boy,"

"With all due respect miss," Steve grunted as he assisted her, fighting off the Cybermen at her flank, "I AM a grown man,"

"Maybe to most people, but not to me American Boy," she teased. "And I'm a Mrs. By the way."

"You're a flirt for a married woman,"

"Nothing wrong with that."

As River approached the controls and Steve continued to fight, Bruce and the Other Guy dropped in. Steve and the Hulk destroyed anyone who came close to River as she somehow re-programmed the floor, which apparently was actually a spaceship, to fly off. The three of them jumped out just in time.

On the green lawn of the White House Bruce became Bruce again, and Steve sat up and turned towards River. She was already up looking at an empty space expectantly.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"River Song, professor in archaeology,"

"That can't be all,"

"Spoilers," She winked at him.

Steve fidgeted. He did not know what came over his body that allowed him to fidget but he had hoped that that particular nervous tick would go away along with every other weakness he had when he was injected with Serum.

"Do you need a ride home?"

Did his breath just hitch?

"You're sweet American Boy, but no thanks, besides,"

She turned towards the empty space in front of her and smiled as a whirring sound vibrated through the air, the wind picked up, and her eyes glowed with delight. "My ride is here."

A blue police box materialized in front of her and the doors swung open to greet her. The red-headed woman and brown-headed man from last time burst out of the doors and embraced her.

"Young lady if you run off like that again I'll… I'll," the red-head shrieked, her Scottish temper flaring through her pale skin.

"I think you still have some psychopath left in you, River," the man commented.

River just laughed.

"Oh mummy, daddy, I missed you too."

"A Pond through and through," a flighty voice called.

Steve and a recovered Bruce watched as the man with the bow tie pranced out of the box and tweaked a strand of River's curly hair.

"That's my girl, taking on Cybermen all by yourself."

River's eyes, Steve couldn't help but notice, shined.

"What do you expect of the child of the TARDIS sweetie?"

"And us!" The other man said indignantly.

The man with the bow tie finally seemed to notice Steve and Bruce and said quite quickly,

"Oh! Hello there Star-Spangled man who has most likely flirted with my wife! Pleasure to meet you and the man who can turn into a great big green thingy! I know its all Gamma rays and all that. When will you humans learn not to tamper with such things? Never I suppose. But oh well, where's the fun in stopping?"

He grinned and practically flew back into the blue box from whence he came.

"Come along Ponds!" he called.

They followed him in, the Doctor they called him and before Steve could open his mouth River turned around and blew him a kiss.

"Later American Boy!"

The blue box disappeared with a whir, a cry of "River!" and a raucous peal of laughter Steve could not shake out of his head.

Steve could not shake it off. No matter what he did months after their first meeting he seemed to just run into her in almost every global crisis. Renegade Oods in Russia, Weeping Angels within the Vatican, and the Silence (not that he remembered them) in Rio. After these encounters where she increasingly stopped just saving his butt and progressed to working together, calling "American Boy!" over her shoulder he became familiar with the routine and the feelings growing in the pit of his stomach.

Sometimes the Doctor showed up and sometimes he didn't and Steve learned she put herself in danger because that's where she could find him. Her Space Man with the bow tie who sometimes knew her more and sometimes knew her less. When Steve asked why she couldn't just travel with him (and he did not say it bitterly, he swears) she smiled in that way where a heart was most likely breaking instead of swelling with joy.

"That's not how time works, not how we work," she explained. "We never meet in the right order and it has to stay that way for now."

"It looks like running away from the problem to me," Steve said, perching his legs over the cliff where they sat after apprehending some Headless Monks that had gone on a converting spree on Native Americans within the Grand Canyon.

"You just don't understand the way Time works, like most humans you think it goes in a straight line when really its just a mixed ball of, as the Doctor says, 'wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey' stuff," she pats his hand. "I'm running with him, and that's what matters to me."

When she left it became painfully obvious to Steve that he had fallen in love with a married, seemingly older, woman who crossed time and space to look for danger and archaeological wonders on the side.

He was doomed before he even found out about her prison sentence during that time with the Sontarans.

There was only one time she saw his face behind the mask, and that was when she knocked on his apartment door.

"I need to vent and I couldn't talk to my parents without being sure I would lock on to the correct time stream," she explained as she pushed passed him into his apartment.

Going straight to the fridge she rummaged until she found a bottle of wine, uncorked it, and took a swig. She looked up at his startled face and said nonchalantly,

"I knew you'd have a handsome face when I found out you were a soldier in the 40s. All classy like aren't you American Boy?"

"River," he said taking three long strides and grabbing the wine bottle from her hands. "What's wrong?"

"He had never kissed me before," she said, grabbing the bottle from him and taking another drink. "I kissed him and he didn't know what to do. I knew it would happen, but not this soon."

Steve's heart sank. Whether for her and her heartbreak that resonated in her eyes (it was all about those eyes) or his own, knowing he could never have her even as the Doctor forgot her, he didn't know.

"You know him more…"

"He knows me less."

She sighed.

"My own parents don't know I'm their daughter anymore either. I know I'll see them in different timelines, but it hurts all the same."

Steve pondered this in his head and decided to ask her.

"How come we keep meeting in order?"

She shrugged, set the bottle on the table, and raised herself on her tip-toes to kiss his cheek.

"I guess you're special American Boy."

She fluttered out the door and a flash told him she had gone back to Stormcage, leaving him eyeing the bottle she drank from wishing he could get drunk from something she had touched.

She'd bounded up to him in army green with a smile on her face, shooting the alien he was battling as she went.

"I'm free! I can just be an archaeologist now! I got my sentence shortened at the Byzantium!"

Steve wished he could embrace her and kiss her curly head but instead he threw his shield like a boomerang, effectively decapitating the large, scaly monster behind her.

"That's great!" he said, throwing his shield again as she shot at two approaching aliens to his back.

"The Doctor was there! So young! Almost like a baby. Didn't trust me, of course, but fun all the same."

"You're quite the liar."

"It's a half truth, besides, rule one…"

"The Doctor lies. I know. You've told me."

River raised an eyebrow at him.

"What's wrong with you American Boy?"

Steve just grunted.

The battle ended soon after and as Steve began to approach the rest of his team, River said,

"I just wanted to say thank you. I thought you should know before I went on an excavation soon."

"Thank you for what?"

She approached him and Steve stood still, his breath hitching as she reached up and removed the mask that covered his face. Gently patting his cheek she leaned up and whispered,

"For being a man I needed."

She stepped away and grinned and all of a sudden she was tampering with the device on her wrist that meant she was about to disappear. Steve didn't know why a great weight had settled in his stomach, making him anxious.

"I've got to hurry and get ready," she called. "My Doctor is going to take me to see the Singing Towers, he's been promising for ages!"

Before Steve could even call out to her, choke on something similar to a confession because something insane and foreboding told him he should, she was gone.

Weeks later the Doctor, the man with the bow tie showed up on his doorstep, and with eyes older than he last saw them, told him about the Library. Steve wished he could punch River's husband in the face, yell and scream and cry. Instead he fell to his knees at the Time Lord's feet and begged.

Her husband cried and they both knew fixed points couldn't be re-written.

**Author's Note:**

> WHY AM I BREAKING STEVE'S AND THE DOCTOR'S HEART ALL AT ONCE? I'M HORRIBLE!
> 
> If you haven't read my other piece 'Time Took Her' that's the Doctor's view on River's death. I don't know why I thought that Steve falling in love with River would be so much fun, I just think they would click. Of course poor Steve would be resigned to a one-sided love. *sigh* I'm horrible.


End file.
